Self Defense - philosophy

last updated 28 iv 2016

The Basic USJF philosophy for self-defense

There is a significant difference and needs between youth needs for self-defense and adults. USJF attempts to meet those differences by designing a needs based curriculum for each of the age categories.

Youth has several components and different situations. For example youth between ages 5-9 are more prone to kidnapping, sexual and physical abuse while 10-14 year olds are more prone to physically and emotional bullying. Adolescence are more prone to physical bullying and abuse. Each category has a different set of needs.

Basically our program for youth focuses on these distinct levels of intervention.

Each of these levels have separate strategies to help first avoid the situation or if that is not possible escape from the situation. Our last resort is to use some form of reasonable aggression against the attacker.

Adults have a variety of issues as well. There are basically three distinct group of adults: youthful (18-29), middle age (30-55), and the senior population (56 and above). Again each group needs to develop strategies for all the different situations experienced in adult life. Basically adults need to approach self-defense from the following paradigm:

Avoid situationsDeter the attackerSurvival skills – do what you need to do to survive the situationSelf-defense – use a reasonable degree of aggression

Adults, through appropriate exposure to training, learn to read situations, develop appropriate strategies to avoid a situation and/or deter a potential attacker. In the event that the 1st two steps are ineffective or no time is available to employ those strategies the participant is introduced to skills that help one survive in difficult or perilous situations.